1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus which supplies wafers to a pellet pick-up device used in a pellet bonder, etc.
2. Prior Art
Conventionally, semiconductor pellets are supplied to pellet bonders, etc. in the following manner: As described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 61-32813, a wafer bonded to a wafer sheet is cut by a scribe and separated into individual pellets. The wafer sheet with these pellets thereon is then stretched so that the individual pellets are separated at predetermined intervals, thus facilitating the supply of the pellets. Afterward, the wafer sheet is attached to a supply ring, which is a round plate.
Then, as is described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 59-161040, a multiple number of supply rings are held in a stacked configuration in an elevator-type. These supply rings are then fed out one by one, and each supply ring is carried by suction-adhesion via an arm equipped with a wafer suction-adhesion plate, and then placed on an X-Y table of the pellet pick-up device. While this X-Y table is moved in the X and Y directions, the individual pellets are pushed up one at a time by lifting pins so that they picked are up by a suction-adhesion nozzle installed on a supply head.
In the conventional wafer supplying devices described above, preliminary work is required in order to stretch the wafer sheets which carry the pellets thereon and to attach the wafer sheets to the supply rings. In addition, mechanical devices must be provided in order to perform this preliminary work. Accordingly, there are problems in terms of the cost of such equipment and the increased amount of work required.